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Medical interventions during pregnancy and childbirth may not be the best way to improve newborn survival

In Brazil neonatal mortality declined in the 1980’s but rates have virtually remained unchanged since the 1990’s. Fernando Barros (Hospital de Clinicas, Montevideo, Uruguay) and colleagues studied births in 1992, 1993, and 2004 in the Brazilian city of Pelotas. They found that important changes in maternal characteristics occurred over the 22 years covered by the study.

3 Mar 2005

Increases in macronutrient consumption during pregnancy can lead to increased birthweight

Giving pregnant women in the developing world a daily supplement containing 10 vitamins and five minerals could help increase the birthweight of their babies, concludes a study published online by The Lancet.

3 Mar 2005

Lancet neonatal survival series

Three million of the four million newborn babies who die worldwide each year could be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by The Lancet (Thursday March 3, 2005).

3 Mar 2005

Smoking prevention programs in junior high or high school have little influence on whether teens choose to light up

"Our study shows there is little evidence to suggest that existing school-based smoking prevention programs produce long-term reductions in smoking prevalence among youth," says the study's first author, Sarah Wiehe, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Children's Health Services Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

3 Mar 2005

Inherited traits and tumor mutations affect response to treatment of leukemia

The outcome of chemotherapy treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) depends not only on the acquired genetic make-up of the leukemic cells, but on genes that children inherit from their parents. This study, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the online edition of Blood.

3 Mar 2005

Researchers turn fatal brain cancer into treatable disease for children

Some children with a rare brain tumor that is considered almost universally fatal can be saved if they receive radiation therapy followed by tandem (given one after the other) cycles of high-dose chemotherapy.

3 Mar 2005

Virtual reality games can help alleviate pain in children

Virtual reality games can help alleviate pain in children being treated for severe injuries, according to research published today in the Open Access, peer reviewed journal BMC Pediatrics.

2 Mar 2005

Liverpool is justified in its attempt to go smokefree

New figures showing that second-hand smoke at work kills over 600 people every year in the UK leave no doubt that Liverpool is justified in its attempt to go smokefree, say doctors and nurses.

2 Mar 2005

Helping parents quit smoking should be considered in future public-health interventions that target youth smoking

A new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests that parents who quit smoking when their children are young may have a big influence on whether their offspring will quit smoking as young adults.

1 Mar 2005

Small hearts make big difference for young transplant recipients

When a young child is in need of a heart transplant, the problem is not the intricate surgery, but the scarcity of donors.

1 Mar 2005

Youth smoking prevention campaign associated with substantial decrease in youth smoking

The American Legacy Foundation’s national truth youth smoking prevention campaign; accelerated the decline in youth smoking rates between 2000 and 2002.

1 Mar 2005

Children can benefit from surgery for sleep apnea

Times have changed. Within the last ten years, the primary reason that children have had surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids is not because of infection. Instead, up to 90 percent of the adenotonsillectomy surgeries are to correct obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

1 Mar 2005